What the IRA concours is
The Instituts Regionaux d’Administration, or IRA, run the main competitive entrance examination into cadre A of the French civil service through the generalist grade of attache d’administration de l’Etat. Unlike the grandes ecoles model that feeds the very top of the administration, the IRA pathway recruits mid level managers and policy officers who go on to run sections, projects and services across ministries, prefectures and public establishments. Passing the concours is the entry point; the training that follows is what actually confers the grade.
Five schools, one concours
There is no single IRA campus. Five Instituts Regionaux d’Administration run the training, located in Bastia, Lille, Lyon, Metz and Nantes. The concours itself is common across all five: the same written and oral tests, held on the same dates, decide entry everywhere. A candidate chooses a preferred institute at the time of registration, and the final list allocates each successful candidate to one of the five according to rank and preference, so where a candidate trains depends on how they placed as much as on what they asked for.
Three tracks into the same grade
Like most French concours, the IRA competition is not a single door. The concours externe is open to candidates holding at least a licence (bac+3) or another title or diploma classified at niveau 6 of the national qualifications framework, and it is the main route for candidates coming straight from higher education. The concours interne is reserved for candidates who already have at least four years of public service, either as a fonctionnaire or as a contractual agent, recognising that time already spent inside the administration. The troisieme concours opens a different door again, for candidates with at least five years of professional experience in the private sector, or as an elected local official, or in a position of responsibility within an association, on the view that varied professional and civic experience is itself relevant preparation for a management role in government. Each track has its own eligibility conditions, but all three lead to the same outcome: entry to an IRA and, on completion, the grade of attache d’administration.
Ecrits then oraux
The concours runs in the two phase structure common to French competitive examinations. The epreuve ecrite d’admissibilite combines a cas pratique on a current State public policy issue, which places the candidate in the position of an attache and is answered through a reasoned note built on operational supporting documents, together with a questionnaire a choix multiple of sixty questions on general knowledge and the administrative and institutional environment, and two short answer questions testing writing and reasoning. This written test was restructured in a recent reform to weight general culture and institutional knowledge more heavily alongside the traditional case study format.
Candidates who clear the ecrits move to the epreuve orale d’admission, an interview with the jury built around professional simulations and questions on public policy challenges, intended to assess motivation and aptitude for the functions the IRA training prepares candidates for. Internal and troisieme concours candidates also have their prior professional experience formally recognised as part of this oral stage.
Formation and what attache d’administration means
Success in the concours leads to a training period, not immediately to a posting. The first part of the formation is spent inside the IRA with the status of eleve-attache, paid by the institute, before candidates move into a period of service as attache-stagiaire, paid by the administration they are assigned to, ahead of confirmation in the grade. Attache d’administration de l’Etat is a generalist cadre A grade: holders take on project management, human resources, legal, budgetary and communication functions across the ministries and public services of the French State, which is why the IRA training itself is organised around those competency areas rather than around a single technical specialism.
Where to check current details
The exact number of posts offered, the registration window and the exam calendar are fixed by a fresh arrete published in the Journal Officiel each year, and they change from one session to the next. The central registration portal and the five institute websites publish the current opening notice, the temario for the written and oral tests, and the final lists once each session concludes. Candidates preparing for a specific session should confirm dates, vacancies and eligibility conditions against that year’s notice rather than a prior session’s figures.